cdnSpinalTap
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2007
Not that it really matters for the purposes of this thread, but just to add a little clarification to your wording: it may look like the exchange rate you get from the credit card is better than the bank, but that is only because the bank embeds their 2.5% f/x fee in the exchange rate (compared to credit cards, which separate if from the exchange rate).
So, for example, say you look at the current CAD spot rate of ~1.248. Visa will offer you a rate of about 1.248, + 2.5% on cards that charge the fee, while the bank will offer you a rate of about 1.280 (which is in fact, about 1.248 + 2.5%)...
Hence the advantage of using a f/x-fee free CAD credit cards for USD purchases, rather than using USD credit cards and paying it off by converting CAD into USD.
Definitely - completely agree. As you said, if you can find a card that does not charge the 2.5% or get something more than that back (i.e. the net 1.5% from Rogers), you can take advantage of VISA/MASTERCARD not embedding that fee. You don't have that option with the bank unless you are transferring huge amounts of money.